


Blue, Blue, Blue...

by EternalRavenDreamer



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance Defense Squad, Red isn't much better to be fair, Scene Rewrite, The Blue Lion makes some bad parenting choices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:28:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22503268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalRavenDreamer/pseuds/EternalRavenDreamer
Summary: After recovering Shiro (coughKuroncough), the idea was for everyone to return to their original Lions, with Allura on standby in case anyone needed to sit out. But when Lance tries to return to Blue, she doesn't give him the reception he expected......namely, she doesn't give him one at all.(A scene re-write I originally made on my Tumblr before the show was finished. Since I was wildly unsatisfied with the whole series, and my previous attempt, here's another go at it!)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 91





	Blue, Blue, Blue...

"Blue, what...why aren't you letting me in? We found Shiro! Red's so happy to have Keith back that it's all I can feel from him! So why...why aren't you taking me back?" Lance pleaded, on hands and knees.

But still Blue's force field stood.

\-----

Lance stepped into the common area, head down and Paladin helmet in his hands.

“Ah, Lance! How did the Blue Lion react to the good news?” Allura smiled, but there was a slight ache in her words. It was obvious that she had grown attached to Blue during her time as the lion’s pilot.

Lance wordlessly approached the Altean princess, and presented her with the blue helmet.

“Lance, wha-”

“I’ll give you the rest of the armor after I clean it up some, seeing as you’re the real Blue Paladin now…congrats, by the way.” He gave her a weak smile, and Allura went slack-jawed, taking the helmet out of reflex. The weight felt wrong in her hands.

“Blue…rejected you?” Lance couldn’t help but flinch at the words. Rejected. By the very lion that tore him from Earth to begin with. He keep his gaze to the floor.

“Since you guys don’t need me to form Voltron anymore, I don’t wanna wear out my welcome or anything. I know I can’t go straight back to Earth, all the Castle's escape pods and little mini-ship things are all connected. It would lead the Galra right to our metaphorical front door. So just…I dunno, drop me off at the nearest Voltron Alliance planet? I could teach them some better defense tactics, or help them form a resistance group like the Blade of Marmora or whoever Pidge’s brother is running with right now," he startled to babble, hands clenching and unclenching.

"Or maybe drop me off at the mermaid planet Hunk and I got wormholed to, they like me. I could totally get them to join our cause. Heck, even drop me off at a freakin’ space mall, I could try to find a job mopping floors or some shit, earn us some GAC-”

“Lance.” The crestfallen former Blue Paladin looked up again. He’d been so emotional during his rant that he hadn’t noticed the rest of the team in the room. Crap, had they been there the whole time? Lance swore Allura was alone when he came in…

Shiro, who had been the one to quiet Lance, stepped forward slowly. He looked pained, shocked. As if he was the one who had been pushed away by his own Lion. He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t seem to find words. So Lance swallowed back the familiar burn of tears and spoke first.

“Just let me be useful one more time…please.”

Silence hung thick in the room. Coran walked in, saw the tension in the room, and promptly stepped backwards again. Eventually, Shiro found his words.

"Lance...why would you jump straight to leaving the team, the Castle?"

"Wha...because all I am besides the guy who pilots-- _piloted_ Blue, and then Red, is another body! I can turn my bayard into a different kind of gun, big deal, Hunk can make his a circle or a rectangle depending on how much spread he needs, I'm sure he can make it a sniper rifle too. Other than that I just...try to lighten the mood, which makes everyone mad all the time, no wonder Blue is mad at me or, or...God, I don't know! All I know is that Red is so loyal to Keith that he made sure I knew I was just a guest, and now Allura is clearly the one Blue wants! My Lions hate me!"

Hunk stepped in, palms facing forward, trying to soothe his friend, "That...that doesn't make any sense! All five of us were there in the cave where we found Blue - and Keith found her before he even met the three of us! But she picked you back then so why would she change her mind now?"

Lance gritted his teeth and turned away from his teammates, closing in on himself, "Because _Allura wasn't there_. Allura, her real Paladin, wasn't there and I was the only option left. I was probably never supposed to be here-"

"That's bullshit!" Keith snapped, grabbing Lance's shoulder and forcing him to meet his gaze, "Didn't you say back then that Blue was mostly flying herself? Then she could have grabbed the four of us and left you behind on Earth! Let me talk to Red and Allura talk to Blue, maybe we can get some answers." He turned towards Allura with a face that pleaded _'help me out here I have no idea what I'm actually doing'_.

"Keith is right, I'm sure that if we ask the Lions, the truth will come out. Perhaps they know something we do not." She nodded and held Lance's other shoulder, gentler than Keith.

Pidge, who had been listening intently, snapped their fingers and spoke up, "And Lance was the only one who went straight to his original Lion! Maybe since Black and Red haven't talked to Shiro and Keith yet, they can't re-shuffle their pilots, like having to pull three levers at the same time! Or Blue could want to say something to Allura first, or Red could want to talk to Lance...there's more possibilities than just the worst-case scenario."

Lance couldn't think of a comeback (curse Pidge and their logic, it reminded him too much of getting tricked into a stalemate playing chess against his uncle Ricardo), opting instead to nod silently and follow his friends back to Blue's hangar - but not before Allura made him take the helmet back.

\-----

Once everyone was gathered in front of Blue's force field, Allura stepped forward.

"Blue, I believe you already know why we are all here. We want to know why you haven't allowed Lance back in. Now that Shiro has been found, he can fly you again, or if Keith is away with the Blade, I can still take up the mantle. There's nothing that says you have to choose only one of us - we are only the second generation of Paladins, it's not as if there are firmly established rules. So what is causing you to keep this wall up between the two of you? Please...help us understand." She pressed a single hand gently upon the barrier, and the moment Lance blinked...he was somewhere else.

Somewhere bright, and sunny, and warm, and with the scent of ocean breeze on the air.

He knew this better than he knew himself.

This was Verodero.

This was home.

**_Prrrr...._ **

Lance turned, jumping at the deep resonance. But when he did he saw...himself. Slightly younger, but yeah that was definitely him, floating on an inner-tube out on a calm ocean.

"What the cheese, what the cheese, what - what the _fuck_ , Blue..!" Lance whispered through his teeth, freaking out an appropriate amount for someone in his situation. The Lance in the ocean ran his hand across a small wave, and Lance could feel the coolness of the water envelop him. But it didn't feel like a wave, it felt like...a hug. Like the hug his mother gave him the first time he went back home for Winter Holiday break after leaving for the Garrison. Tight, loving, and familiar. When he blinked next, the wave began to take form - the form of a blue lioness, translucent like water with ice for whiskers and eyes and a nose, headbutting his hand like a cat.

"Blue...? Is...is that..."

The lioness cracked an eye to look at him, but suddenly the sun grew hotter and brighter, and Lance had to shield his eyes. He turned to see what was happening, and the sun was...alarmingly reddish? And bigger? Or maybe it was closer and it was just perspective. He blinked again and YEP THAT WAS DEFINITELY PERSPECTIVE OH SHIT

But instead of a massive ball of plasma and the heat-death of the universe, Lance instead found himself looking at a lion. A red, flaming lion, whose main looked suspiciously mullet-like.

"Holy sh--Red?! Whuh...how...what's going on?!" The red lion stood...or, well, hovered over the ocean, not daring to get too close and risk extinguishing himself, but gazed down on the younger Lance. Not quite as if he was sizing him up, but more the expression Lance's father had worn just before he broke the news that his brother had accidentally flushed Lance's very much alive pet fish down the drain instead of his own very much NOT alive fish. The look of having to give someone happy bad news.

Blue looked up at her fellow lion, and the purring stopped. The ocean around her seemed to frost over. Lance felt a surge of emotions that weren't his.

Refusal, said the ocean. _This one was hers, from the moment he took his first breath he inhaled the ocean salt._

Insistence, said the sun. _This is the only one who can stand close enough to the one who is already bathed in his fire, who must now learn to fly._

Anger, answered the ocean. _No, she will not have another cub ripped from her embrace. Don't you remember how much she cried and mourned for her little fish?_

Fury, replied the sun. _He remembered how much he screamed for his king, and now he was having his young torch pulled away too._

Mercy, cried the ocean. _Her sun-shower is easily broken. A heart so delicate, yet given so freely. If she were to cast the child out, it would be a wound deeper than any other._

Remorse, sobbed the sun. _I know...I know._

Promise, demands the ocean. _If she gives harbor to the princess, she expects her sun-shower to be kept safe._

Sworn, agrees the sun. _This was **their** sun-shower now. A blend of the sun and the rain. Their child. He will protect their child._

Solemnity, whispers the ocean. _The sun-shower is so attached. To pass the child over, she will have to shut the child out completely, lest the babe's cries cause her to waver and turn back._

Anguish, hushes the sun. _And to prevent the sun-shower from attaching to him, he will force a distance, holding onto his little torch to keep the sun-shower out._

Suddenly, Lance understands. And it's the worst revelation he's ever had.

"Blue never wanted to let me go. The barrier isn't to keep me out...it's to keep herself in. And it's not that Red never wanted me...he didn't want me to get hurt again," Lance felt tears stinging and falling almost in some cheesy anime slow-motion, "my Lions don't hate me...they love me..!"

And then he feels the definition of sand between his toes, and smells the nectar of the tropical plants alone the edge of the shore, guarding the boardwalk from the tides, and he feels the wind of the ocean breeze...and three more lions appear. A big yellow lion, almost able to pass for a real Earth lion if it wasn't for the craggy rocks peaking out of the curly mane, stretching out and giving itself a sand bath. A small, sleek green lion..ess? It looked almost like a juvenile, with the beginnings of a mane, but not enough for Lance to tell. It didn't help that the "mane" was mostly leaf and ivy, with small buds along its tail. It seemed to be playing hide-and-seek with itself in the bushes, occasionally stopping to harass a butterfly before darting back in again. And then a tall, proud looking black lioness, with large scar tissue across her back where Lance somehow knew wings were meant to be. A creature of the air, indignantly grounded, it sat at the edge of a dock, gazing into the horizon...and then lifting her head skywards. 

Lance looked up too.

Despite Red's fire, a night view of the galaxy was visible above. And directly over his weird not-ghost, was his zodiac constellation, Leo. Funny, lance could almost see a solid white lion forming from it...

and then the white lion snapped its head to him.

\-----

"HOLY JESUS AND MARIA, FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK, WHA-"

"Lance!"

Lance fell backwards in shock and heard his name call from multiple voices, briefly seeing all the Lions pouncing on him before blinking furiously...and realizing it was his team.

"Wha...what happened? I was...I was home, and there were the lions, and...Blue! And Red, they were both there, and I-" he tried to sit up, finding that he was in Hunk and Allura's combined hold, with Keith and Pidge in front of him, and Shiro at his back (looking oddly dark?).

Allura spoke first, "We all saw it, then. Blue showed us a vision, a message."

Then Hunk, "She's been with you since before you were even at the Garrison! I mean, her spirit was, not her actual robot self. I wonder if all of our Lions were like that, or if it was only Blue since she was on Earth?"

Keith somewhat nervously piped up third, "And Red didn't just pick you to take my spot because there wasn't anyone else. He chose you because you were the only one he trusted to be my second-in-command," his face softened and his voice steadied, "And I'm glad he did, too."

Pidge broke the moment, cutting in next, "But they weren't the only ones! Did you see?! All the lions - all of them! They all approached you, all acknowledged you! What does that even mean, when we know you couldn't pilot Black before?!"

"It means," Shiro answered, finally seeming to break out of whatever reverie he was having, "that even though he couldn't fly Black at that moment, Lance might have the potential to fly any of the Lions if we need him to."

Allura cut back in, hands expressing wildly, combing through her hair, excitement on her face, "And that constellation! Lance, what was that constellation?!"

"That was Leo, the sign of the Lion. In some Earth cultures, there's this tradition of using astronomy for fortune-telling and stuff, and depending on when during the year you're born, a different major constellation is assigned to you, which is supposed to affect your personality and stuff. Mine is Leo, which in hindsight I guess is pretty ironic?" he scratched the back of his head, still dazed from the whole experience. Allura brought her hands together in front of her face, barely holding back the awe in her voice.

"Lance, that was...that was the White Lion. A spirit of the Astral Plane, thought only to reveal itself to full-fledged Altean quintessence masters who manage to find its domain, hidden between dimensions. The White Lion doesn't just...appear in the sky over a beach! It sought you out and I...I have not the slightest idea why, but Lance," Allura took a moment to compose herself, "Lance, this could be something completely unprecedented."

Lance balked, mouth agape. Astral Plane? Spirits? He'd had some weird dreams lately of a glowing purple place with a nice breeze, was that anything to do with this? But more than anything, Lance couldn't wrap his head around something.

"But...but why me?! Is it just because I found my Lion first? Or because I've always leaned more towards a jack-of-all-trades approach to life? I don't...I don't understand why all this would happen to me over anyone else."

"...maybe we don't have to understand it. At least, not yet," Shiro knelt down, patting Lance on the back with his left hand, "Maybe you're just supposed to know that you're not as much of an extra as you though." Lance turned to share a smile with his (former) leader, before looking up at the Blue Lion. Her barrier was deactivated, and when he closed his eyes, for the first time in months be felt a cool ocean wave and the purr of a motherly figure...but this time, he felt a heat, too, not far away, and a low growl, giving up the tough-guy act at last. And somewhere in his mind, Lance knew he could imagine the steady shift of tectonic plates, the curling of a vine, the roaring of a gale. And maybe...something else, too.

"Yeah...maybe you're right.

\-----

Not long after, they learned that Black wasn't responding to Shiro the same.

Not long after, Lance's dreams of the purple place got longer, and the wind more violent.

Not long after, things changed again.

Not long after, Lance failed to notice.

But that's not this story,

but not long...

**Author's Note:**

> N.E. Ways, Lance deserved better and while he still did well with Red I wanted him to have closure with Blue. Wildly going against canon to cope? In MY fanfic? You better heckin believe it! PRISMATIC PALADIN TIME


End file.
